A You In My Life
by T.J.Lexx
Summary: Caroline realises she has feelings for Klaus and goes to be with him in New Orleans. After five years, Klaus discovers something about why she came to him that could destroy their perfect life. Starts out fluff, ends with some dark Klaus
1. Chapter 1

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_When she came to him, it had felt like a dream…_

Klaus was sitting in his living room, swirling some brandy in a glass and contemplating how exactly to deal with this latest spoke in the wheel that was his reign of New Orleans. This was a regular thing for him. Getting New Orleans back was one thing. Keeping it was quite another. It was a quite morning. He was quite surprised when a blonde vampire zipped into his living room unannounced. When he realised who it was, he got to his feet swiftly.

"Caroline…" he breathed, "What are you doing here?"

She had smiled that brilliant, warm smile of hers and taken his hand.

"Would you believe me if I said I came to say hi?"

As she laughed he pulled his hand away and stepped back. This was unexpected behaviour from Caroline and he was confused. Randomly showing up in his house, being so cheerful with him…she had probably come to ask for something for her friends in Mystic Falls. He walked to the table to pour himself more brandy.

"I don't have time for this. What do you want?" he said harshly.

When he turned around, he realised that her smile had dimmed. He felt a little bad for that. He was happy to see her but she was never there for the reasons he wanted.

"Klaus, I…," Caroline cleared her throat and continued, "I don't really know how to say this…"

"I suggest you just spit it out, sweetheart," Klaus returned snippily.

At that, Caroline stepped forward and kissed Klaus. It was soft and short, no tongue, just a meeting of the lips. But for Klaus that short kiss held the most poignant promise. A promise that he had given up hope even existed for them. Caroline ended the kiss and looked up at him, her eyes begging him to understand. She made to step away and leave but Klaus grabbed her arm and pulled her back.

"Caroline…," he moaned, before recapturing her lips. This kiss was nothing like the first. This kiss was passionate and wild. Their hands flailed madly, grasping and tearing at each other's clothes until they were both naked. Klaus zipped them upstairs to his room, where they fell onto the bed. There were no words between them so every action had to speak for itself. Every touch of his hand spoke of the many nights he had dreamt of just this. Every kiss she gave him was an apology for the time they had lost, when they could have been together. While they made love, every stroke of Klaus' screamed the depth of his love for her. The openness of her body to him was her way of telling him that she was his, now and forever.

Caroline had fallen asleep in his arms. He stayed awake stroking her hair and admiring the beautiful woman that was now his.

_He was the King of New Orleans and she was his Queen. He protected her and she always had his back. She understood him but held him back when the need arose. Everything was perfect until…_

Even before the door slammed behind him, he was calling her name. He couldn't wait to see her face when he showed her his surprise. He zipped past the living room to the stairs but then zipped back when he realised someone was in the living room. Rebekah was standing by the fireplace, a pleased look on her face. She smiled when he approached; she looked like she had been waiting for him.

"She's not here, Nik," said Rebekah smoothly.

Klaus raised an eyebrow. Something felt off with her.

"O…K, do you know where she's gone or when she'll be back?" he asked.

Rebekah giggled. "I know where she's gone and she's never coming back."

Klaus' face darkened and so did his tone. "What did you do to her, little sister?"

"Me?" she replied, the faux innocence practically dripping, "I simply un-did a little something I did do five years ago. Tell me, Nik, didn't you ever wonder why Caroline came to you all of a sudden head over heels in love and ready to share her life with you? Never struck you as a bit abrupt or too good to be true?"

Knowledge dawned on Klaus. "You…you couldn't have…you wouldn't have…" he stuttered.

"Oh but I did. I compelled her. I knew she would make you happier than anything else I could possibly do or get for you. Then recently I realised that you _were _happy, practically over the moon. So I knew it was the right time to yank her out from under you…literally and figuratively."

Rebekah had spoken in a smug tone of self-satisfaction. Her peals of laughter ripped through the hurt, confused fog Klaus was in. All of that cleared away and all he felt was rage. Luckily, rage was an emotion Klaus was very familiar with and very comfortable in.

His voice even, Klaus asked, "So where has she gone?"

"Where do you think, big brother? Back to Tyler Lockwood. You should have seen her when I lifted the compulsion. In between her _disgust _at what she had been doing with you, she was worried sick that it was too late for her and her hybrid hunk. It was _him_ she loved all along, Niklaus, not you."

Klaus raised his gaze to look into Rebakah's eyes. In them he saw nothing but mirth and happiness at his despair.

"Why?" he asked.

"Telling you why would take years. Just remember all the times you daggered me, all the times you took happiness from me. That's why."

Klaus made a mental note to kill her when he got back. Right now he had to find Caroline. He had to believe that Rebekah had lied and that there was still hope for them.


	2. Chapter 2

"_Tyler, please!" Caroline pleaded tearfully, "I love you. I never stopped loving you, never. Rebekah-"_

"_Compelled you, yeah, so you said…"_

_Caroline creased her brow. "…'so I said?' So it was. That was the only reason why I was with Klaus. I wanted to be with you. I still want to be with you. WHY ARE YOU BEING SO NONCHALANT ABOUT THIS?"_

_Tyler looked at Caroline sideways. She looked into his eyes, searching for any trace of love. He dropped his gaze, somewhat abashed._

"_You say you were compelled into being with Klaus. But Stefan fought a compulsion for Elena. We had been through so much for each other. I can't believe there was no way you could get around that. Even if not to leave him, to just tell me something was off. I can't believe…that some part of you didn't really want to be with him. And I'm not interested in his sloppy seconds."_

Klaus had watched Caroline run away in tears from her exchange with Tyler. He turned away now and clenched his fists. Hearing Caroline beg for Tyler's affection made his stomach feel like it was collapsing on itself. His heart ached like someone was crushing it inside his chest while he listened to her deny that he had ever meant anything to her. All those days spent fine-tuning their empire, all those nights spent in each other's arms…counted for nothing in her mind. Rebekah was right. Klaus took a deep breath and cleared his mind. He pushed the hurt into the dark void inside of him, that place that Caroline's light had brightened for five years. It was cold now. The hurt went in and the detached anger Klaus was known for poured out. He welcomed it and let it immerse his being. Feeling too much had gotten him into this mess. Not feeling at all was the only way he would get out.

Caroline roughly threw her things into her suitcase and zipped it up. As she did, she made a mental checklist so she wouldn't leave anything by mistake. After that, she set about, making the bed as neatly as she could, with precision only a vampire could wield. All of this was just to take her mind off of her battered heart.

She had run to Tyler without a second thought as to how the years might have changed him, thinking their love would still be as strong as it had been five years ago. He wanted nothing to do with her. If her heart still beat, she was sure it would have broken at his words. Now where would she go? It was too painful to stay here. She couldn't go back to Klaus' house, not after leaving him like that. She knew he wouldn't take that well.

In all honesty, she couldn't say she felt nothing for Klaus. Five years yield a lot of memories and a lot of emotions. She knew now that he hadn't been joking when he said he would be her last love; he was more than capable of ensnaring a place in her heart. But their relationship had begun with a pretence, and her feelings for Tyler had not disappeared.

Just then, the buzzing of her cell phone interrupted her reverie. She picked it up and saw a text from Tyler

**MEET ME ON THE SCHOOL FOOTBALL FIELD. WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT US.**

Caroline zipped out of the room so fast the carpet smouldered.

Even before she was 10 ft from him, Caroline knew the dark figure standing in the center of the field wasn't Tyler. But this person never stood still or so hunched over so Caroline, against her better judgement, went over anyway to see what was wrong. She walked up and stood facing his back.

"Klaus," she ventured.

The Original turned slowly around, the white coverings of what he was holding in stark contrast to his black coat. Caroline gasped when she realised what it was.

Klaus' gaze was fixed firmly on what he was holding onto and he didn't look at her while he spoke. His tone was even and belied the gravity of the moment.

"The day you left, I was coming to tell you. I had been planning how I would do it for months. I thought every day about how you would react. Would you be as happy as I hoped or would you think I was crazy to believe we could ever be a family? "

Klaus let out a grim chuckle. "Guess it doesn't really matter now, does it?"

Caroline's hands were over her mouth in shock. She had not stopped staring at the squirming baby in Klaus' hands since he turned around.

"Oh my God," she whispered, "What did you do?"

He swept his dark eyes over her now. "I know a part of you always wanted a family of your own. To be quite honest, I never thought about fatherhood until Hayley got pregnant. After that, it still never really hit me because the child is always with her. But being with you made me yearn inexplicably for this tiny piece of humanity."

Klaus took a step forward and gently lowered the baby into Caroline's arms. As jolted as she had been before, nothing compared to the tingle she felt when she looked into that baby's face. Those soft cheeks, that little pink mouth, that cute little hand barely surrounding her finger. A tear ran down her cheek. She couldn't believe this. It couldn't be real. Then the baby opened her eyes to reveal some that Caroline found strangely familiar.

She heard Klaus' voice saying, "I call her C.J. Seemed fitting considering she's your clone."

Caroline looked up at Klaus, eyes wide.

He continued, "I wanted you to have a child that was actually yours. And I knew I would love any child who was a version of you."

He looked down, cleared his throat and resumed speaking, "I want you to know what you tried to leave."

Caroline was so blown away and touched by all of this that she managed a shakey smile.

"Klaus…" she said softly. Then it hit her. Her tone hardened. "What do you mean 'tried'?"

Klaus looked up and past her. Caroline turned around to see Tyler standing a few feet away staring at the three of them. 'How long had he been there?' she thought. Caroline opened her mouth to explain but was cut off by Klaus.

"Yes," he said smugly, "Tried. It's not like you succeeded. It was wrong of Rebekah to compel you into being with me, I concede, but I am not paying for her malevolence. So now you'll come back home with me and Caroline Jr. and we'll start a new, better life."

His tone turned sarcastic. "I know you're probably thinking 'cold day in hell before I go back to this maniac. I'll just take C.J. and go it alone." His acerbic laugh echoed in the wind. She even thought she felt a chill. She cradled C.J. closer.

He came right up behind her and whispered in her ear, "Remember this the next time you try to leave me." Then he snapped his fingers.

Tyler reached into his chest and tore his own heart out. Some blood spattered on C.J.'s blanket.

Klaus turned on his heel and walked away. "Now you know how it feels to have your heart ripped out by someone you love."


End file.
